


Ryland the Dragon

by Vziii



Series: Apartment Poetry - a Good Game poem-fic collection [2]
Category: Good Game (TV 2017)
Genre: Gen, Mentions of alcohol, Oh my god there's a national poetry month?, Poetry fic, Sad Ending, Toxic Relationships, everytime with ryland's last name, mentions of weed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 09:44:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18428003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vziii/pseuds/Vziii
Summary: Ryland the dragonA beast to behold,Found a roommate, butTreated him cold.Thank you to @whatwiththegobangandsuch for editing!





	Ryland the Dragon

Ryland was a dragon  
Who lived in LA,  
Hidden in a treasure cove  
Of shitty video games.

With a bark-brown ponytail  
And concave frown,  
He kept his guard up  
And his stern gaze down.

His breath was as hot  
As his temper untamed.  
His words were a stream  
Of arrogant flame.

Dragons like him  
Were lonely life-long,  
Ryland always believed.  
But he was proved wrong.

A bubbly warrior  
Braved the caved-in loner:  
A bony bong-bard named  
Alex the Stoner.

With beer in his hand  
And Mary-Jane perfume,  
The roommate tried kindness  
To put out the fumes.

But sweet speech and song  
Weren’t quite effective  
To the dragon’s ears,  
Or his life perspective.

The aura of weed  
And rage’s exhaust  
Seeped third-hand smoke  
Into their cramped crap loft.

Cold beers on the carpet,  
Constant cold shoulders,  
Denied niceties,  
A sting of a smoulder…

Alex tried to talk with him,  
Ryland will give him that.  
Hangovers were helpful  
To spark up a chat.

But the child or drunkard  
Who plays with fire  
Will always get burned  
And run away to retire.

Alex was naive  
To think that his roommate  
Had the care or capacity  
To communicate.

Instead, this mad dragon,  
His hot breath astray,  
Would roar upon Alex  
And chase him away.

But he would come back.  
He always did.  
For in this small cave,  
Alex, too, had hid.

He’d come back tonight  
After a couple more drinks,  
Stumbling and dumb,  
Ryland sat to think.

To occupy his mind  
Upon this quiet night,  
He took tissue papers  
And rolled them tight,

Then grabbed Alex’ lighter  
And lit the papers up.  
He watched it flicker  
Into soft smoke puffs.

It clouded up the room  
And snuck carbon in his nose,  
Letting the smell waft  
Into his walls and his clothes.

The light grey air  
Kept engulfing indoors,  
Floating, wandering,  
Searching for more.

That same, toxic air  
Seething into the ceiling,  
Ryland realized,  
Was what Alex was breathing.

Ryland was a dragon  
Who coughed up smoke,  
Painting lungs black  
And left others to choke.

No one deserves that,  
To be hurt by me,  
The beast had decided.  
No one, but me.

Ryland, the enemy,  
Was a toxic soul  
Confined to the cave.  
Alex had to go.

**Author's Note:**

> Would you believe this was sitting in my drafts for about a year?
> 
> After being inspired by me being a pyromaniac and burning tissue paper?
> 
> Anyways Ryland and Alex deserved more character exploration, in my opinion. I hope this was a good way of doing them justice.


End file.
